This year’s EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and the U.K.’s Farnborough International Airshow lived up to their reputations as they showcased novel aircraft technology that could one day become normalized.
Boston-based Merlin Labs provided a possible glimpse of the future at Oshkosh, landing its autonomous Cessna 208B Grand Caravan on Wittman Regional Airport’s (KOSH) Runway 27 on July 17, it said. CEO Matt George in a statement said Merlin believes the autonomous landing was the first by a conventional fixed-wing aircraft in AirVenture history, though it took place a few days before the show officially began.
Meanwhile at Farnborough, Vertical Aerospace—the U.K.’s leading developer of eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) air taxis—demonstrated a transition from helicopter mode to airplane mode and back on July 20, using a prototype of its Valo aircraft. Vertical claims it was the first such public demonstration at Farnborough.
Throughout last week, Merlin displayed the Caravan—equipped with its AI-powered Merlin Pilot system—at Oshkosh, while Vertical displayed a full-scale commercial Valo model at Farnborough.
‘Are You the Autonomous Caravan?’
Merlin said it completed the autonomous landing at Oshkosh on July 17, as thousands of pilots began to descend on Wittman Regional for the annual spectacle.
The Caravan is the company’s primary platform for testing and one of several models it aims to automate for civil and defense uses. Merlin describes its Pilot platform as the “operating system of record for autonomous flight.” It uses sensors and cameras to collect external data that is fed into flight control computers, telling the aircraft where it is and where it’s going. AirVenture attendees were able to experiment with Pilot using Merlin’s interactive flight simulator.
As the Cessna approached Wittman, an air traffic controller in the airport’s north tower radioed, “Three Charlie Bravo, are you the autonomous Caravan?”
“Affirm,” replied Jonathan Oliver, a Merlin test pilot who was in the cockpit.
Pilot is designed to communicate with ATC through voice and natural language processing algorithms, which would be capable of understanding and speaking in various accents and voice types. But an onboard safety pilot could intervene should anything be lost in translation.
“The Merlin Pilot landed it just like I would have,” Oliver said, according to a company blog post.
Oliver added that Pilot still requires clear visibility of the runway in order to conduct a landing, which prompted Merlin to track wildfire smoke that had been drifting down from Canada.
In May, Merlin unveiled its Condor product family, intended to automate large, multi-crew aircraft for commercial cargo operations. The company is working toward the first flight of a Pilot-equipped, U.S. Special Operations Command C-130J—with zero pilot input—and is developing a similar capability for U.S. Air Force KC-135 tanker aircraft.
VTOL Aircraft Flies at Farnborough
At Farnborough, Vertical said its Valo prototype—one of two built for early flight testing—lifted off like a helicopter using its vertical propellers, accelerated and transitioned to wingborne cruise flight, and returned to hover for a vertical landing. The company said the demonstration was conducted with regulatory officials in attendance.
Vertical completed its first prototype transition flight in May, after some of its U.S. competitors such as Joby Aviation and Beta Technologies. It plans to build seven type-conforming Valo aircraft for future certification testing with the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority.
“Farnborough International Airshow has always been a place where the future of aerospace is not only imagined, but seen for the first time,” said airshow CEO Gareth Rogers in a statement.
Vertical compared the milestone to other Farnborough firsts, such as the Airbus A380’s public debut in 2006. Airbus put the world’s largest passenger airliner into service the following year. But Vertical is targeting a 2029 commercial launch for Valo after seeing its timeline repeatedly slip.
During the airshow, Vertical said it joined Honeywell Aerospace’s EU-funded Project VERTI-GO, which it compared to the FAA’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP). The eIPP, which officially began this month, will span 26 states and facilitate activities with electric and autonomous aircraft developed by Beta, Joby, Merlin rival Reliable Robotics, and several others.